This week, Jimmie Johnson will drive the No. 48 Lowe's "Dover White" Chevrolet into Kentucky Speedway, in NASCAR's second trip to the track. After finishing third in 2011, Johnson is looking to knock one more track off of the list of tracks he has yet to conquer. Here were some of Johnson's thoughts about Kentucky...

What is the most challenging part about racing at Kentucky?

“Really, how rough the track is. My first laps there from the test session last year when we went, I felt like the bumps were going to make the car lose grip and spin out and be out of control. But there is so much grip there that, even with as rough and as bumpy as it is, you stand on the gas and carry a ton of speed and just bounce around. Those are the things I had to overcome when I got on the track last year.” 

Is that what sets it apart from other 1.5-mile tracks?

“Yes. It’s the roughest and fastest track we go to. Well, Atlanta is fast, but there are big swells and I still don’t feel like we’re driving as hard at Atlanta as we are at Kentucky. At Kentucky, you’re driving it like a freshly repaved track. You have high frequency bumps and banking doing weird things. It’s a fun track for those reasons and it has a lot of character to it.”

How do you think the track is going to change from last year to this year?

“Well, the track was already really bumpy and rough. They haven’t resurfaced it or anything and I hope they don’t because we like those types of tracks. I would assume those bumps will get a little bit bigger and the grip will go down just a touch.”